Catholic News 2

Washington D.C., Apr 5, 2016 / 03:33 am (CNA).- Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has long been known for supporting legal abortion. But her comments in this election year have some pro-life critics saying that she is becoming more radical.

“She is publically signaling to the abortion lobby that she backs abortion on demand and won’t support any restrictions,” said Mallory Quigley, communications director for the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life political advocacy group.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Clinton was asked when, or if, an unborn child has constitutional rights.

“Well, under our laws currently, that is not something that exists,” she said. “The unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights.”

In the same interview, Clinton said she supports “reasonable restrictions” on abortion that account for “health of the mother.”

Quigley suggested that these comments are both incoherent and an attempt by Clinton to convince voters that she has a moderate stance on abortion.

“It’s a complete contradiction to say that the unborn are people, to recognize them by calling them persons, but to insist that they do not have constitutional rights,” Quigley told CNA. “If you acknowledge that the baby is a person, then of course they should have constitutional rights.”

In the interview, Clinton did not specify which restrictions she would support. Quigley said that because the definition of health in abortion legislation is so broad, it is questionable whether Clinton supports any restrictions at all.

“(S)he’s really gotten increasingly radical on this issue,” Quigley said, discussing the abortion language used in Clinton’s campaign speeches over the years.

In one speech during her bid for the nomination in 2008, Clinton responded ‘Yes’ when asked whether her goal was ultimately to “reduc(e) the decisions for abortion to zero.”

During that discussion, Clinton said that she thought abortion should be “safe, legal and rare, and by rare, I mean rare” and that it “should not in any way be diminished as a moral issue.”

Four years later, Clinton has dropped the emphasis on making abortion “rare” and ultimately nonexistent.

This February, when responding to claims from Sen. Marco Rubio that she believed in abortion on demand and without restrictions, Clinton said: “You know, I’ve been on record for many years about where I stand on abortion, how it should be safe and legal and I have the same position that I’ve had for a very long time.”

Quigley said she thinks the change in Clinton’s abortion platform mirrors what has been happening in the Democratic Party over the past few years.  

“The Clintons were famous for normalizing the mantra of ‘safe, legal and rare’, but over time the Democratic party has really become more extreme, taking the word ‘rare’ out of the party platform and putting in ‘regardless of ability to pay,’ which of course means paid for at taxpayers’ expense,” Quigley said.

Other comments about abortion during Clinton’s campaign have also caused some critics to question whether her stance on the issue has become more extreme. In April 2015, Clinton said she believes that “religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” to expand access to abortion.

And in August 2015, Clinton likened GOP candidates with pro-life views to terrorists:

“Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don't want to live in the modern world, but it's a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States,” Clinton said at a speech in Cleveland. “Yet they espouse out of date, out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st century America. We are going forward, we are not going back.”

The most radical position that Hillary has espoused during her 2016 presidential bid, Quigley suggested, is her proposal to get rid of the Hyde Amendment, which since its passage in 1976 has barred taxpayer money from paying for abortions other than in cases of an endangered life of the mother. In 1993, President Bill Clinton expanded the exceptions to include rape and incest.

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have made repealing the Hyde Amendment part of their 2016 campaign, which signals a dramatic, “abortion on demand and without apology” platform, Quigley said.

“(Clinton) wants to change longstanding federal policy, which has always been bipartisan,” she said. “The Democrats have for a long time realized that many taxpayers just can’t stomach the idea of federal funding for abortion without limits, but her position is more and more extreme at a time when it’s very clear that there’s areas of consensus when it comes to abortion.”

Polls indicate that there is the greatest consensus on abortion policy surrounding abortion restrictions after 20 weeks, when scientists generally agree that a fetus can feel pain in the womb.

A 2013 Washington Post-ABC News poll found 56 percent of voters preferred limiting unrestricted abortion rights to 20 weeks rather than 24 weeks.  A 2012 Gallup poll found 61 percent of Americans believe abortion should generally be legal during the first trimester, but the support dropped to 27 percent in the second trimester and 14 percent in the third trimester. A 2014 Quinnipiac poll found that 60 percent of Americans support pain capable legislation, which restricts abortion after a fetus can feel pain, typically after 20 weeks.

Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life, said since so many American voters favor restrictions on abortion after 20 weeks, Clinton’s more extreme views seem out of touch with the American people.

“She (Clinton) surrounds herself with these people who are telling her that everyone supports abortion, but it’s a minority view, it’s not what the rest of the country believes,” Day said.

“If you look around, and all these states are passing 20 week bans and eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Twenty states limit abortion after fetal viability, and 23 states have some form of limits on abortions at 20 weeks or later, with varying exceptions. In Sept. 2015, the Senate blocked a Republican bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks nationwide.

Quigley added that election pressures from the pro-choice and Planned Parenthood lobby have likely led Clinton to embrace a more extreme stance. For the first time ever in their 100-year existence, Planned Parenthood announced their endorsement of a candidate, Clinton, during the primaries rather than waiting for the general election.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Hillary Clinton is the most outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood among all the presidential candidates,” Planned Parenthood said in January of their endorsement of Clinton.

Other pro-choice groups including NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC have also endorsed Clinton. CNA reached out to Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America for comment, but did not hear back by press time.

“They are certainly one of Hillary Clinton’s key allies, so as they’ve gotten more and more stringent, not allowing for any concessions on abortion at all, the politicians have been forced to follow suit because there’s a lot of money that comes with those endorsements, money and power,” Quigley said.

Ultimately, however, she thinks “the American people are going to reject that level of extremism when going to the voting booth.”   
 

Photo credit: Joseph Sohm via www.shutterstock.com

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(Vatican Radio) Helen Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister who is now a senior U.N. official, announced today she is running for the top position at the United Nations. Ending speculation about her candidacy Clark became the eighth person to throw her hat into the ring on Tuesday saying she would bring nearly 30 years of leadership experience to the job of Secretary General.

General Ban Ki Moon’s second term ends at the end of the year and although some at the UN are arguing a woman should now hold the top position, countries including Russia say that it’s the turn of someone from Eastern Europe.

The New Zealand’s government has formally nominated Helen Clark who said she was honoured to received it’s backing.

The U.N. secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council, which means it's vital to get support from its five veto-wielding members known as the P5: the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France.

Clark was prime minister of her country  for nine years until 2008 and has headed the U.N. Development Program for the past seven.

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Ballarat, Australia, Apr 5, 2016 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who led the Diocese of Ballarat in Australia's Victoria state from 1971 to 1997, died Monday at the age of 85. He had been accused of covering up sexual abuse of children in his diocese.

Bishop Mulkearns died April 4 at the Nazareth House Nursing Home in Ballarat after suffering colon cancer.

“Those who knew him personally will remember a man who was dedicated in his service over those years and, indeed, over the sixty years he served as a priest,” Bishop Paul Bird of Ballarat stated. “At the same time, Bishop Mulkearns himself acknowledged that he had made some tragic mistakes during his time as bishop.”

Bishop Mulkearns was born in 1930 in Caulfield, a suburb of Melbourne, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1956. He was consecrated a bishop in 1968 and appointed coadjutor bishop of Ballarat. He succeeded as bishop in 1971, remaining there until his resignation in 1997, at the age of 66.

The bishop was known to have moved Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia’s most notorious abusers, between parishes for several years while being fully aware of the former priest’s abuses. Ridsdale is known to have committed more than 130 offenses while chaplain at Ballarat’s St. Alipius school in the 1960s-1980s.

Ridsdale was first convicted of charges related to child sex abuse in 1993.

In 2013 Australia established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The commission has held more than 30 hearings on institutions' handling of sex abuse, including religious groups, sporting and youth institutions, and government institutions.

Bishop Mulkearns appeared before the commission in February via video, saying that “I certainly regret that I didn't deal differently with paedophilia. We had no idea, or I had no idea, of the effects of the incidents that took place.”

Bishop Bird noted in his statement that Bishop Mulkearns had “expressed his sorrow for [his] mistakes in the evidence he gave to the Royal Commission in February.”

“The Royal Commission had foreshadowed a further hearing of evidence from Bishop Mulkearns. His death means that the Royal Commission and survivors will not be able to hear any further evidence that he might have given and this will be a disappointment to them,” Bishop Bird added.

Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy, was ordained a priest of the Ballarat diocese and served for a time as a consultor to Bishop Mulkearns.

At his hearing before Australia's Royal Commission at the end of February, Cardinal Pell voiced criticism for the way Bishop Mulkearns had dealt with Ridsdale, saying it was “a catastrophe for the victims and a catastrophe for the Church.”

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